Document presented to the Sublime Porte by the National Committee and the Committee of the Government
To the Sublime Porte,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Imperial Government has from ancient times granted to the different nations under its righteous protection privileges and prerogatives for their religious liberty and the special administration of their internal affairs.
These prerogatives are in their principles uniform for all nations, but they are at the same time adapted to the particular religious regulations and customs of each nationality. And each nationality has used and enjoyed them according to its peculiar manners and customs.
The Armenian nation, like other nations, has had to this day a Patriarch, who has been acknowledged by the Government as the President of the Patriarchal Administration, the representative of the nation, and the medium of the execution of Imperial Orders, and who from ancient times has been elected from the ecclesiastical body by a General Assembly, composed of individuals representing the different classes of the nation.
The Patriarch in his office, which is to preside over the nation and to watch over its interests, has never been exempt from the influence and supervision of the nation, exerted over him through the General Assembly. The proof of this is that the Patriarch has always invited and convoked the General Assembly, and has applied to that Assembly for a decision when a question has been raised by orders of the Sublime Porte.
The Armenian nation about two years ago begged of the Imperial Government to have two Assemblies established in the Patriarchate under the presidency of the Patriarch, one religious, the other political, that they might be participators in and auxiliaries of the office of the Patriarch, and that any deviation on the part of the nation from its ancient regulations and customs, both religious and political, might be prevented.
When these assemblies were established it became necessary to organise other Councils for the administration of the minor affairs of the nation.
But as the authority and duties of each national officer were not definitely defined, it was evident that these efforts to improve the state of affairs in the nation would be the occasion of continual misunderstanding in the different branches of the National Administration, as well as between that administration and the nation. This naturally would be the cause of many irregularities in the execution of justice for all concerned, and of confusion and disputes in the National Administration.
With the object of doing away with the causes of such confusion and dissension, and with the nuisance of the undue claims of different parties, the Imperial Government, with its paternal solicitude for all its subjects, deems it necessary to organise a National Mixed Committee in order to prepare a Constitution in accordance with the peculiar religious and political customs and long-established manners.
Now that Mixed Committee considers it proper according to the outline of the Constitution presented for confirmation to the Sublime Porte,
I. That the office of the Patriarch as the medium between the nation and the Sublime Porte should remain as it was in the old system,
II. That the organisation of the General Assembly should be reformed. The national delegates, instead of being elected by the Esnafs (Artisans)—since the condition of the Esnafs is no longer what it used to be—should be elected by the Committees of churches, that is, by different quarters, in a way that perhaps will be more regular and lawful than the one adopted by the Greeks.
And as Armenians living in the interior of the country rightly complain that they are altogether deprived of participation in the deliberations and decisions of the Patriarchate, a number of the delegates should be elected by the provinces to be added to the number of the delegates of the quarters or sections of Constantinople. The ecclesiastical members, twenty of them, should be elected by the clergy in Constantinople, so that the total number of the members of the General Assembly be 140; their term of office should last ten years, and once in every two years the tenth part should be changed, and new elections take place.
The General Assembly should nominate both the Patriarch and the members of the two Assemblies working under his presidency and should have the supervision of their acts,
III. The administration of religious affairs should belong to the Religious Assembly, the administration of Political affairs to the Political Assembly, and that of mixed affairs to the Mixed Assembly, which shall consist of the other two Assemblies together,
IV. The Religious and Political Assemblies should manage through the Sectional and other Councils all national affairs of the church communities (that is to say, the people of different sections or quarters) under their jurisdiction, and the affairs of the churches, schools, hospitals, monasteries, and other similar national institutions,
V. The centre of the administration should be the National Patriarchate. The Patriarch, as the Official Head of the Patriarchate, should preside both over the General Assembly and over the two National Assemblies, and he should under the inspection of the General Assembly manage all the affairs concerning the nation directly or indirectly,
VI. The administration of provincial communities should be connected with the Central Administration. The Metropolitans should preside over local assemblies which should be organised in the same way as those in Constantinople, and they should be the managers of those local assemblies,
VII. The Provincial Assemblies should be responsible to the Central Administration. Each one of the Councils of this Central Administration should be responsible to the Assembly to which it belongs. The National Assemblies should be responsible to the General Assemblies, the Patriarch responsible on the one hand to the Imperial Government and on the other to the nation (through the General Assembly),
VIII. And, inasmuch as the Imperial Government considers the Patriarch as the natural medium of the execution of the orders given by it to the nation, and at the same time considers him as the head of the National Administration, and it is to him that it addresses its question, if the Government should command the Patriarch to give his opinion on the question asked, the Patriarch should act according to the decision of the Assemblies under his presidency; but, if he be ordered to communicate to the Government the opinion of the nation, then he should convoke the General Assembly and communicate to the Government the final decision of that Assembly,
IX. The National Administration has three kinds of obligations. First towards the Imperial Government, that is to preserve the nation in perfectly loyal subjection and to secure to the nation in general and to individuals in particular the preservation of their rights and privileges on the part of the Government. The second obligation is to the nation, to treat it in true compassion and in a paternal way. The third is to the see of Edgmiatsin, to act in accordance with the religious regulations and laws of the Armenian Church.
These are the features in the Constitution which the Mixed Committee considers desirable. These features are approved by the other Committee which was organised according to the orders of your Excellency, in order to present to the Sublime Porte on behalf of the nation their observations on the Constitution.
Constantinople, 1862.
Signatures of the members of the Committee of the Sublime Porte—Stephanos, Archbishop of Nicomedia, Representative of the Patriarch Elect of Constantinople, three Armenian ecclesiastics, and eight notables.
Signatures of the members of the National Committee, seven notables.